“Left, get the one on the left.”

“I'm drawing aggro.”

“Then stop bursting!” Lacy, our healer, cries.

“It's my basic rotation!” counters Lina.

“That's why you don't use storm mage,” comes John's complaint. “Their sustained DPS is shit.”

“And you always draw aggro after you get your stacks up.”

“Then use your taunt!” she fires back at our annoyed tank.

“I use it to pull.”

“It should be off cooldown already.”

I finally speak up. “The mobs are off cooldown already.” We finished them all off halfway through the argument. “Let's just pull the next group, my pyroclasm is up again.”

“Save it, I spotted an elite in the next group.” That one is... I squint a little and glance to the party panel. Theriolancer559? I think that's the guy Alan found when he said he couldn't make tonight's raid.

“Sure.”

After bickering through the next group, we arrive at the elite.

“Alright, Lina, hold your burst until Joe calls his taunt, I'll pyro at the same time.”

With those instructions, we engage. We hold, just maintaining standard skill rotations until the call comes out.

“Taunting no-”

Then my screen disappears. And the mouse in my hand too, just as I'm in the middle of clicking. And apparently, the seat right under me, because the next thing I know, I'm falling on my ass with a grunt.

“Ow, shit!” I blink a few times. “What the fuck?” I'm not in my room anymore. Not in my house and it's suddenly the middle of the day?

Seriously, what the fuck?!

Staring around, I'm too shocked at the sight to even react. The people waltzing around in armor with weapons out, the old-school wooden houses, wizard robes on some and peasant rags on others...

Somehow, I can't figure out how to respond until I look up.

Two suns and a few dozen big-ass fucking moons?!

Did I just get isekai'd?! No, no, that's impossible! I didn't die! And, and I mean, I wasn't even outside! Who gets pulled into another world from their fucking bedroom? In the middle of the night?

Shit, what am I wearing?

It really took that long for a more reasonable worry to break through.

Looking down at myself frantically, I'm relieved to see I hadn't changed into my pajamas yet when I started gaming.

Because Joe is always complaining I get on too late because Mom makes me do Japanese club after school to piss off Dad because he's always NOT THE TIME TO THINK ABOUT THIS.

Shaking off my stupid thoughts, I look over my clothes, just some basic jeans and a tshirt. Which... actually don't fit in here, do they? Because I'm in a fantasy world...

Then a few people separate from the surrounding crowd in... I guess this is a town square?

When all three, coming from different directions, are looking straight at me, I tense up.

One is a woman in somewhat better peasant clothes, but the other two are men that just scream 'adventurer.' The smaller of the two looks like your average light class, ranger or rogue, while the other is totally a fighter, with the plate armor, stubble, and hot, chiseled face to go with it.

When I catch his eyes wandering, I roll my shoulders on reflex and silently thank Joe for rushing me because I forgot to take off my bra in my rush when I got home today. This isn't the frilly one, is it? I don't remember. Please don't be the frilly one...

My self-conscious worries are interrupted when the three people stop, still some distance away. They share a meaningful look, then the woman steps forward. With short nods, the men leave.

Huh?

The woman finishes her approach, coming right up to me. Her not being a hot dude in platemail with a big fuck-off sword helps, but my mouth is still starting to go dry.

Then she says, “Hello. You are confused.” Huh? She has a thick accent that I totally can't place and why is she telling me I'm confused? Then she clears her throat. “You are confused?” She made it a question this time?

“Uhh...” I don't know what to- “Yes.”

“You are otherworlder, yes?” she asks.

They wha? They know about people from other worlds here?

I nod back stupidly before realizing my fuckup. What if they hate people from other worlds? Hunt them down or something like that one webcomic I read? No isekai protagonist ever wants to reveal that they got fucking yeeted straight out of their own god damn reality in this this one!

“Apologies. This happens.”

“..........”

Did... did she really just say that?

It happens?

“This is Verilz. Otherworlders come sometimes.” Then she extends a hand and I find myself taking it because, right, I'm still sitting on the ground in the middle of the street.

“You want go home?” asks the lady.

“Home?” All I can do is parrot, I think I'm in shock. Home? Right, home.

Because I just got isekai'd.

How am I supposed to get home? Will I ever see Earth again?

Just as the reality of my situation is beginning to set in, the woman says, “Go two... block. That way.” She points off down the road. “Adventurer guild. Say otherworlder. You go home.”

Through her broken English, her meaning is still totally clear. They can send me back? For real? Since when can fantasy worlds just send you back?

“Remember spot. Place.” This time, I don't know what she means. “Come back here place. Go home. This place.” She's pointing at the ground right where we're standing. I need to come back here to go home? I slowly nod my understanding and she smiles.

It takes a few moments too long, waiting for her to say something else, before I realize I'm being dumb. I turn in place, looking at the surrounding buildings. A shop there, a well there, that looks like a smithing place based on the sign...

Actually, now that I'm looking closer, the nearby signage that aren't pictograms like the potion bottle on what I'm guessing is a potion shop or general store, are all written in some language I can't read.

It isn't even a language I recognize. Not Chinese, Russian, Japanese, Arabic, or any of those Nordic languages. Straight up fantasy world language.

When I finally finish surveying the surroundings so I can find my way back here, I turn to the woman and nod. She nods back and sticks her hand out again. “Ithanimara.” I blink a little at the unknown word as I take her hand. While shaking, the way she said it finally makes it click. That was her name?

“Yumi.” Ithanimara goes on her way, leaving me alone in the middle of this little town square.

Well, at least I'm way less freaked out now. Knowing that this crazy fantasy world I've been pulled into will let me go home. Easily! They treat people from other worlds as a normal thing here!

With my earlier panic rapidly giving way to fascinated excitement, I follow my instructions and start on my way down the street.

The eyes on me are a bit unsettling at first, but for real, I'm walking around in a fantasy world wearing a tshirt. How could they not think I'm from another world? How the hell do isekai protagonists always get a pass on stuff like that?

Now feeling a lot ls concerned, I take it all in. Wooden buildings stand on both sides of the street, signs mostly indicating different kinds of stores. On the right, there's one that stands taller. The sign looks like a mug and it's three stories.

Bar and inn I guess. Tavern? I think that makes it the local tavern, unless this town is big enough to have others?

Besides that, there are the people. As I noticed earlier, there are plenty that look exactly like someone would expect of a character stepped straight out of a D&D campaign.

And if those robes and staffs are any indication, they have magic here.

Ok, duh, of course they have magic if they can portal me to another reality. But still! That guy's staff has glowing red runes on it, he can totally throw around badass fireballs, right?

I'd love to go ask him about it, but as I've picked up from the snippets of conversation on the street, they speak a different language here. It explains Itha's heavy accent and broken English.

Wait, how did she know English at all? Do they really get that many otherworlders here that they've picked up English? What about other languages? Like, people from other countries?

Sure, English is the most common language in the world, so I guess that's kind of likely? But then what about people from other worlds, not Earth? Do they get those too?

With all these random thoughts rolling through my head, I continue on down the street. I just passed the first cross street heading off into a different section of town, so I should be about halfway to the adventurer's guild. I shuffle on, moving far slower than the inhabitants of this world, all bustling about, taking care of whatever they do here.

Just watching some of them, there are peasants and a few more well dressed people, possibly merchants, carrying things like clothing in baskets, wooden crates, and other various objects, or pulling them along in two-wheeled rickshaws.

Ooh, ooh! Coming down the road going the other way is a fantasy creature! It's like a giant lizard the size of a horse, but it has big bat wings folded against its back.

I stand to gawk as it passes, a harness mounting it to a big wagon behind. Everyone moves aside, and I look up to find a man in a nice green tunic and pants with fancy cufflinks and whatnot.

The rich man smiles at me and I keep looking back and forth between him and the huge thing pulling his covered wagon.

A few moments later, they press further through the crowded street.

I don't even care. Hopping up and down, I squeal like a kid in a candy store. This is fucking incredible!

Regrettably, my two block trek through Verilz comes to an end when I arrive in front of the next cross street. Opposite the road lies the adventurer's guild. Couldn't miss it if I was blind. Four stories of wood and stone and reliefs of badasses swinging swords and flinging magic, with two huge doors allowing a flood of people through in both directions.

It dominates that side of the road, as does the mass of adventurers coming and going. I just stand and watch for a while, taking in the sight of fantastical adventurers decked out in all sorts of armor, with every imaginable weapon.

I mean, this is amazing, but I'm going home, right? I could stay, right?

No no no, this is amazing, but I'm not ready to abandon my life at the drop of a hat. I have friends and a guild and fine, by parents are shit, always being passive aggressive asshats pressuring me about what do when I go to college... Hating my parents is probably not a good reason to leave my while life behind. I don't have any illusions that I could actually live here! I don't even know the language!

Sure, I've heard plenty of English loan words shuffled into the local tongue but that doesn't even begin to mean I could get by!

Besides, the idea of becoming some awesome magic slinging adventurer is good on paper, but actually putting my real life on the line to fight crazy fantasy monsters? I'm not insane!

No. No. As cool as this world is, living here would totally end up being a nightmare, wouldn't it? I probably couldn't do any of that magic shit anyway, I'm from a non-magical world.

Yes, the people here look human, but they're fantasy world humans, not Earth humans. With magic! They might not even have the same organs in them. Or they have fucking magic organs or something!

Finally managing to shake off my full-blown existential crisis, I have to take a few deep breaths. I'm going home. Maybe just a picture to remember this place by...

FUCK! I don't have my phone!

Ugh, that's right, it's still sitting on my desk in my room, isn't it?

God fucking damn it! What am I going to tell my friends when I get back? There's no way they'll believe this without any proof!

Muttering curses, I push into the crowd of adventurers and enter the massive guild hall. Once through the doors, the crowd thins out as everyone spreads out in different directions.

I'm just starting to look around when something catches my eye and I go that way. Straight ahead past the entrance, there is a long counter with a number of people in nice business uniforms.

Just above the counter is a large sign that has something written in their language with English right underneath.

'Adventurer Guild Reception Desk'

As I approach the counter, I meet the eyes of a woman working there. She doesn't look busy, so I go up to her.

“Hi. Are you an otherworlder?” she asks right away when I reach the counter. She has nice brown hair and looks about my age, maybe eighteen to twenty.

Unlike the first woman, she has a much thinner accent and isn't difficult to understand. Her English sounds almost fluent.

“Yes.”

“Going home?” I nod. “Ok. Just wait here a minute, I'll be right back.” With a short bow, she goes off into some area back behind the counter. I just stand and watch the adventurers briefly until she returns.

“I'm sorry miss, Sir Ethinmond is out at the moment. He is dealing with some business out in town, so he should be back within a few hours.”

“Ok...?” I don't know how else to respond.

“I'm very sorry for the inconvenience,” she apologizes with a really low bow. “Don't worry, we will get you home as soon as we are able. If you would like, you can stay right here until he returns.”

“Oh, no, that's fine.” I really don't want to just stand around for who knows how long, waiting for some guy to show up. “Can I just come back later?”

“Absolutely,” she replies immediately. “Is there anything you would like to know before you go?”

“Yes!”